Thank you so much! I have a goal to get more people to overcome that fear of the classics (because so many people do talk about them in a pretentious way) and just see them for good stories that have withstood the test of time.
My tips include: 1. go see Shakespeare classics on the stage or film; 2. read the Bible (or watch summaries on RU-vid); 2. Read Homer's Illiad and the Odyssey---then dig in because you will have a lot of the basic references as a foundation. Then as you read the Classics 4. Read a chapter at a time (since a lot of classics were serialized in the popular press of their time--many times each chapter is a whole episode or story); and, 5. Don't let the foreign expressions or intricate footnotes throw you. In fact, don't let anything you don't really understand thwart you. Finally, if you are lost, Wikipedia and other websites can annotate or explain what lost you as you went along.
Totally agree with your no. 2. Because after all Christianity shaped Western civilisation and its thoughts, the Bible is an absolute must primer. It will set you up nicely to get into the thoughts of the Western authors.
Regarding abridgments: It is well known that Alexander Dumas got paid per word for his books, and, as such, this accounts for the extreme redundancy of Monte Christo (he was a great writer, but he had to make money after all!). So, many of the abridgments simply pare down these superfluous redundancies. Umberto Eco details this vividly in his introduction to the Everyman's Library version. Great point about useless elitism. One's mastery of a book should be linked to what one got out of the book, not whether it was abridged or not.
I absolutely love this take on abridgments! Thank you for the insight. I just don’t see the need to judge others for the books/editions they read. Let’s all just let people get a lot of the books they read without caring which version it is.
@@Omar-yi2mv It is probably the greatest novel. To make it easier to read, before you read printout a list of the characters/families and refer to them. Each character has like 3 names which is one thing that can make it difficult.
Scottlp2 I familiarized myself with the nicknames beforehand since I read a lot of Chekhov- but if I jumped straight into W&P without an understanding of Russian literature, I would find it quite challenging!
Does anybody know what edition of Anne of Green Gables that was? Ps. I recommend „A tree grows in Brooklyn“ by Betty Smith for beginners. The language is fairly easy and it’s one of my favourites
Sherlock Holmes tales are great as he's such a classic and well known character. The stories are short to avoid being overwhelmed and build up to bigger stuff.
Agreed! Les Miserables is best read in the abridged version. I use to be an unabridged snob and I love French authors, but the tend to digress into major sidebar tangents. Now that being said I love the unabridged Alexadre Dumas. I does make it harder to follow the direct story but adds so much depth. And yes please do a tutorial on how to make the book purse.
For me, The Count of Monte Cristo is better Unabridged, because it contains darker adult themes of drugs, harems and revenge. I've read it twice in English and using it to improve my French reading now. Don't forget the works of Hugo and Zola also.
I loved Count of Monte Cristo as a teenager, it was my favorite Dumas. I also like Twenty Years Later (follow-up of The Three Musketeers) because of Cardinal Mazarin's delightfully creepy character. By Victor Hugo, I simply love The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and wonderful and heartbreaking story, but I have to admit there are chapters in it that are better skipped.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis are very easy to read. At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald is another good fantasy story. Also please consider the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. These are modern classics which are like old fashioned fairy tales. The Beowulf translation by E. Talbot Donaldson is very lively and interesting (it's a prose translation of the poem), and it is a really good book. A translation can make a lot of difference in how much you enjoy it.
I love the Chronicles of Narnia! So good. Also, anything Tolkien. Completely agree. A good translator can take a text that others make tedious into something joyful and beautiful.
@@theblindrabbit7990 The Chronicles of Narnia are pretty much unbeatable for children's fiction-except for Larry W.'s suggestion of George MacDonald. I'll give you two tie ins if that helps :) At The Back of The North Wind (you may recall) is actually referenced near the beginning of Anne of Windy Willows/Poplars, and C S Lewis's stepson Douglas Gresham endorses my new translations of MacDonald's realistic fiction: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dYZ19lHp6j8.html
I bought 9 classic books at once cause they were on sale. My friend got curious and said she wanted to try so she got her self 3 of it. Later that night she texted me and said she can't understand what she was reading 🤣 Done with little women. I'm currently reading a tale of two cities 😊
Love unpretentious people who encourage others to read good books and make it sound very easy. Really hate snobs who think they are the intellectuals who are the only ones who can digest classics .
I have just retired, and my plan is to read more books, especially the classics. I have taken some book lists, including BBC's The Big Read and PBS Great American Read, and sorted them by the number of pages. So, now I have purchased several shorter books to get some momentum going.
Three men in a boat Reading it i didnt feel like i was reading a book written in the 1800s It was funny it felt totally relatable. The sequel also is good
I always go for unabridged version of books because I really cherish all those "boring" descriptions of the streets. I usually read to feel the vibe and setting of the story. Just saying. And by the way, the best adaptation of Sherlock Holmes stories are those filmed by Russians. The best best best and very accurate adaptations. They filmed many series. Thank you for your tips!
Try A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens but obviously also watch the Muppet version too. Also, try audio books as they can make older language books sound easier.
I love Jane Austen’s writing and Elizabeth Gaskell 😍 I feel like both authors are relatable, funny, and readable/understandable! I actually did my BA thesis paper on North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. It is a fantastic book!
The thing about the abridged versions is... it's not that easy to find ones that truly capture the themes and characters of the original accurately... and idk if it's just me but the little moments they normally cut give a certain depth and "humanity" to the characters... (Great video btw!!! it's nice to see someone talk about classics in a way that makes them seem less intimidating than people think)
LES MISERABLES is my all-time favorite novel; yes I read the full unabridged version. And even I will admit that you're not missing much if you choose to read the abridged version. You're basically just missing out on long tangents about the history of convents in France, the history of French slang, and a 60-page tangent about the Battle of Waterloo. I recommend you read whichever version you feel more comfortable with. I personally love the unabridged version in its full 1400-page glory just because of what an immersive experiences it is, but that's just me.
I'm surprised you didn't mentioned Charles Dickens at all. His books are great and are still very accessible to modern readers today. OLIVER TWIST is a great gateway novel.
I've started reading classics. For the large books im using audible I'm currently lsinteing to dostoyevskys the idiot. And I'm reading short books im finding this method easier. It used to take me years to read large books.
There's a very good reason to read the abridged version of most Dumas or Hugo novels-they're seriously padded, because they were typically serialized and the longer they were, the more the author got PAID.
Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott 😘👌🏽✨. The length of some of these are intimidating, but while reading Ivanhoe I realised it was originally written/published in parts, so I could have probably set out to read it in segmented episodes. Great mix of themes: adventure, romance, history, coming of age, race. You really start rooting for the protagonists. And I thoroughly enjoyed the prose.
L. M. Montgomery is one of my favorite authors. She wrote a literal tome of material, including about 50 years of journals, which read like novels in journal form. If you want to try a fun, easy read by Montgomery but don't want to commit to the Anne series, try The Blue Castle or Jane of Lantern Hill. Both have great characters and interesting plots. Montgomery was a born storyteller, so no matter what you read of hers, it'll be good.
Just open a book and don't give up reading until the end. That's it! People seem to be finding it harder and harder to switch their brains on these days.
Start with modern classics like to kill a mockingbird, 1984, one hundred years of solitude, etc. After you've acquainted yourself with the style of writing, go for victorian.
The Blind Rabbit I'm watching your video again where you mention people who say classics are written in difficult and boring language. People really need to read classics to find out that it's not true. Read the following paragraph taken from Speak, Memory by vladimir nobokov, and name one modern writer who can write better than this. "The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is headed for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour). I know, however, of a young chronophobiac who experienced something like panic when looking for the first time at homemade movies that had been taken a few weeks before his birth. He saw a world that was practically unchanged - the same house, the same people - and then realized that he did not exist there at all and that nobody mourned his absence. He caught a glimpse of his mother waving from an upstairs window, and that unfamiliar gesture disturbed him, as if it were some mysterious farewell. But what particularly frightened him was the sight of a brand-new baby carriage standing there on the porch, with the smug, encroaching air of a coffin; even that was empty, as if, in the reverse order of events, his very bones had disintegrated."
I completely agree about Nabokov. Easily some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read in my life. I will have to do that bookshelf tour one of these days! I kind of forgot about it. But thanks for reminding me! I'll try to get it done in June or July :)
Getting to this video a little late but I am glad I did. This video is awsome and really helpful for someone like me. Thank you for your tips and suggestions.
(Although I might point out that while it's supercilious to try to intimidate people for reading an abridged version, at the same time it's facile to dismiss the unabridged versions as having nothing further to offer over the abridged.)
Stop spreading the nonesense of saying that reading a claasic is the same as reading some vampire sugar coated hollow and cheesy book. Is not the same because of many reasons. Always is better to read than not to read at all, but not all readings feed your brain the same way. You want people don't feel bad because their poor book choices? ok, but maybe they should just face it, and acknowledge the truth instead of keep pretending all books are the same. That way they maybe will start making a real effort to appreciate classics.
That is so wrong on so many levels. First of all: alot of the classics have stories that isnt rly more profound or creative than modern books. I prefer reading older stories but that doesnt mean i think theyre better quality wise. In fact i think alot of the classics sometimes comes short to modern ones. And also, twilight is cheesy but so are many of the classics as well. Alot of predictable love stories.I am not hating on people like tolstoy, austen, bronte sisters or even Homer even, but my point is that the classics arent necessarily more "smart and intelligent books". If you dont believe me, read Goethe or even Shakespeare. And what are the classics anyway? Most of them were written for the rich upper class, not for the people in general.
@@mustplay7212 So your point is that classics are not per se better than modern books. I don't see why that idea confronts mine. I never said they are better than modern books just because they are classics. Of course there are plenty of modern books better writen than many classics, but that is not the same as thinking every book choice is at the same level. Twilligth is not bad just because is cheesy, is bad because of many other reasons. A classic is a classic because set the bar high in terms of his quality and other reasons, and becomes a canon to look up to.
Yesica1993 you're completely entitled to that opinion! I personally believe the most important thing is that people are reading. One of my favorite stories is of one of my close friends who decided to read Twilight because everyone else was reading it. She eventually decided she enjoyed reading because of that experience, and now she reads books that are a bit more well-written.
Enjoying reading something is one thing. But claiming that all things are of equal quality is quite another matter. I only read, "Twilight" because a friend gave me a copy as a gift. I enjoyed it, in that way that you do when you're poking fun at it all. But I don't claim that it's equal to Shakespeare, or even Tolkien! No one is going to be reading and discussing the deep insights of, "Twilight" 500 years from now!
Yesica1993 I don't think I ever argued they're all of the same quality. My point here is that reading books is awesome, no matter the quality or caliber of the book. I just love to see people reading. Whether it's Twilight or Infinite Jest, I'm happy that people are reading.
Yesica1993 no one is talking about the quality of the books... it's about reading period. Just read and read whatever you want - Twilight, Crime & Punishment, whatever (and don't judge people about what they read because that's just mean and judgemental... we can agree on that, right?).
I respect all opinions and blah blah blah BUT Fahrenheit 451 is an awful book. not that liking it is bad or anything, im just saying the book on its own merits is honestly really bad. Confuses me why its still relevant and recommend to this day
